out, the specie demanded, and in many cases sold at a premium of three and four per cent.: unprincipled persons getting the bills of the banks, obtain specie for them, and sell it, repeating the game as fast as they could obtain the bills. Specie to the amount of 700,000 dollars was thus drawn out yesterday, and the prospect for to-day such as threatened the total destruction of the varied institutions. The presidents and cashiers held a meeting last evening, and determined, while they could be enabled to protect their bills and the community, for a time to relinquish specie payments. The bills of all the banks will be taken on deposit and in payment as usual, and of course be equally good, to merchants and traders, for active operations, as ever.

In a short time specie payments will doubtless be resumed. Persons holding the bills can use them with the same facility as before, and no sacrifice will of course take place. The great fire, added to the speculations and panic, have caused this unpleasant measure, but it is unnecessary in the slightest degree to allude to causes now, nor would we, were it not that the unfounded cant of the Specie Circular may and probably will be spoken of in other quarters in that light.

It is now the duty of the public, of individuals, to sustain each other. The rich must afford every facility to the poor, and all classes must do their best to make business go on with its accustomed spirit. We have but to exercise the usual energy that is displayed by our citizens, and we shall shortly have a return to good times. We trust before long we shall be enabled to make a counter statement, and say specie payments have been resumed. In the mean time the New York bills, for active operations, are as good as cash.

From the Journal of Commerce.

SUSPENSION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS.

WHAT We have been anticipating for a number of weeks has at length come to pass, the banks have suspended specie payments. The reasons for this step must be obvious to any one who has watched the course of things for the last ten days, and it must be equally obvious that the example will be generally followed by the banks in this state, and extensively by those in other states. The thing is much to be regretted in itself, but cannot and ought not to be any longer deferred. It is better that the banks should suspend while yet they have a considerable amount of specie in their vaults, than wait till it is all drawn out, as it would be from most of the banks in the course of three days, perhaps in one. They will be the sooner prepared to resume specie payments, and the public will be in every respect as well off, as if they had stripped the banks of the last specie dollar they possess. The bills of the city banks will be the "current money as before, and it will pay as many notes, or buy as many goods as before. They are in fact worth just as much as before; for the solvency of a bank does not depend upon the amount of specie in its vaults, but upon the amount of its property generally, as compared with its indebtedness.

There is another reason why we think the suspension of specie payments under existing circumstances is wise and proper, viz. that it will save a great many houses, who must inevitably have stopped had the

:

banks continued to pay specie a few weeks longer. The only way in which they could have hoped to continue specie payments, while a disposition to "run" for specie so extensively prevails, would be by ceasing entirely to grant any new discounts, and by calling in their circulation as fast as possible. Even this would not have prevented the present issue, unless they had also declined receiving deposits. But, in either case, there would very soon be no current money afloat, and of course no notes could be paid.

The effect of the suspension will be to relieve the community from the intensity of the pressure under which they groan; for although the banks will, as they ought to do, exercise a suitable caution in regard to the paper offered for discount, they will be enabled to do more for the community than they have done of late, and so save most of the houses which remain.

The determination to which the banks have been brought has not been forced upon them by any indiscretion on their part, but by a concurrence of circumstances beyond their control, which have shaken public confidence in all our institutions, and caused demands for specie to be made to such an extent which no banks anywhere could sustain. Until yesterday the demand for specie was confined chiefly to bill-holders. For this the banks were prepared, and their specie ample. Yesterday their deposits were called for in specie to a very considerable extent, and for this they were not prepared, for their deposits were equal to more than half the amount of their aggregate capitals.

Notwithstanding what is said in the following newspapers of the stability of the Messrs. Josephs, their "paper" was selling, three or four days after, in the streets of New York, at twenty cents for a dollar!! Philadelphia Commercial Herald, Monday Morning, March 20, 1837.

MONEY AFFAIRS.

CONSIDERABLE excitement was produced in this city, especially among merchants, bank directors, brokers, &c., on Saturday morning, by the receipt of news of the stoppage of the house of the Messrs. Josephs, of New York, and a gloom seemed for a short time to spread over the business community, as if an impending calamity was feared, the extent of which could not be foreseen. For ourselves, we thought there was unnecessary alarm, even should the worst that had been heard prove true. There is not that weakness in the structure of our mercantile community, which, should a single stone, pillar, or arch give way, the whole fabric must tremble, or is in danger of falling. No, our merchants are strong-too strong to be shaken by the failure of any house, however extensive may have been its operations: let them but maintain confidence in themselves, and in each other, and nothing can harm them; they will stand firm as adamant.

But this excitement was allayed about twelve or one o'clock, by the arrival of an express from New York, bringing a letter from the Messrs. Josephs, saying that they had resolved on resuming payment to-day.

It was apprehended, early in the morning, that there would be a heavy fall in stocks at the Board; but we are happy to say that these

fears were not realized; on the contrary, sales at the Board closed much firmer, and at higher rates than they opened, and by two o'clock countenances on Change had shortened very materially; ohs! ahs! and mysterious and solemn looks were voted bores, and men went home with sharpened appetites for their dinner, and a keen relish for a good glass of old Madeira. And so ended the panic of Saturday; and so may all such unnecessary panics end. The feeling of anxiety, however, is by no means over; on the contrary, every one is inquiring, what news? what news? and the Exchange was as full, yesterday morning at nine o'clock, as it usually is at high Change on a business day.

We take the following remarks from the New Evening Star of Saturday, which is understood to speak the sentiments of those most deeply concerned :

THE MESSRS. JOSEPHS.

IN yesterday's paper we briefly alluded to the reported failures of the Messrs. Hermans and others in New Orleans, and the ruinous consequences in which extensive houses here might thereby be involved. We did not refer to the suspension of the Messrs. Josephs, because we were in hopes that the Express Mail would, in the afternoon, bring information that arrangements had been made to enable those houses to proceed in the regular course of their business. We were not wrong in our impression. Several letters were received of a satisfactory character, and from Messrs. Thomas Barrett and Co., stating that arrangements were making with the Banks, promising a satisfactory result; that a new House would be formed into which all the partners would throw in their private fortunes, amounting to three millions of dollars, and that as soon as the negotiations were completed, remittances would be transmitted to the Messrs. Josephs to cover the whole amount of their liabilities. Immediately upon the receipt of this intelligence, the Messrs. Josephs, with that promptness for which they are distinguished, announced their intention to resume their payments this day. Their friends immediately urged the impropriety of this step, and the obvious impolicy of resuming their payments, until intelligence was received from New Orleans of a definitive character, placing it beyond doubt that the houses in New Orleans were actually in funds to remit here the amount of their liabilities, which would forthwith place the Messrs. Josephs in the position they stood before the New Orleans failures were known. deemed judicious advice. It would be dangerous to resume payments founded on the possibility, or even the probability, that the bank of New Orleans would furnish the Messrs. Hermans with all the money they required; for we ought not to conceal the fact, that an effort to sustain these New Orleans houses must, to the extent of that effort, exhaust the ability of the banks to extend aid to other mercantile establishments yet unshaken; and inasmuch as there is a deficiency in the currency of the country to meet outstanding engagements, the result of an extended movement on the part of the banks at New Orleans to overcome the existing embarrassments there, in producing a curtailment of accommodations to other mercantile houses, cuts off facilities and payments anticipated by mercantile houses here. It was therefore judicious advice to the Messrs. Josephs not to resume their payments until they were actually in possession of funds to meet the responsibilities of their New Or

This we

leans engagements, for which they have been under the necessity of suspending payment.

There is another reason, and a very proper one, to our mind, against the Messrs. Josephs' resuming immediate payments. However favourable may be the information from New Orleans, it is perfectly certain that in the present condition of the money market, the Messrs. Josephs would be under the necessity of raising funds at the most exorbitant rates of interest, or disposing of stocks and property at the most ruinous depreciations. Is it not better then, we say, both for them and for those with whom they are connected, as well as for other houses whose ability to obtain facilities would increase by the withdrawal of the demand on the money market by the Messrs. Josephs, not to resume payments forthwith, but to wait patiently the issue of events? They are possessed of immense securities and properties in almost every part of the Union. Their value depends mainly upon the knowledge, sagacity and good management of the house, and if they are permitted to have time, that knowledge would operate to the benefit of all concerned. But if, under this sudden emergency, and at this important crisis, they are compelled to part with their property, no one derives any benefit from their skill and understanding in bringing the whole concern to a final and satisfactory termination. This is the opinion, we know, of all discreet and business men in the city; and, however anxious the Messrs. Josephs may be to go on with their extensive operations, it is incumbent for them to yield to public opinion.

The following is an Extract of a Letter from Allen, Clark and Co. to S. and M. Allen and Co., in this City, dated New Orleans, March 9.

"NEGOTIATIONs are still going on with regard to Herman, Briggs and Co. It is now proposed that the old partners form a new House, settle up the old concern, and bring their private fortunes in to take up all the bills drawn on the north by drawing on the house here, at 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 and 24 months. Most of the banks have come into the measure, and the matter will be settled to-day."

The engagements of Herman, Briggs and Co. were enormous, being for thirty days succeeding their failure not less than three millions of dollars, or more than a hundred thousand dollars daily. The originator of this house came to New Orleans, some twenty years ago, with a pedlar's pack on his back, so it is said, but rapidly amassed a princely fortune, and, with his partners, retired from active business a few years ago, leaving their names and responsibility for the use of the junior Herman, and talented business gentlemen with whom he had associated himself.-Jour. Com.

From the New York Sun.

WALL STREET.

PROMISES, announcements, and reports to the contrary notwithstanding, we have reason to believe that the Josephs have been absolutely driven, by designing advisers, to relinquish their purpose of

resuming payment, and that the greater probability is they will not resume at all. Our information is from such a source, that we have no hesitation in publishing the fact, that a general assignment of their effects to John Ward and others has been drawn up, and is ready to be carried into effect at any available moment. Relying upon their pledge to resume payment on the confirmation of the favourable intelligence from New Orleans, the public was led to expect they would do so; but confirmation most ample has been in their hands since Sunday morning, and there is still no indication of a fulfilment of that pledge. On the contrary, with every successive hour they appear to be getting farther from it. We really hope Mr. Joseph L. Josephs will resume his own self-government, and follow the dictates of that honest heart which he is well known to possess, as his total suspension would inevitably drag down and consign to penury and want so many young and deserving houses. We don't see what good cause can be assigned for any suspension of payment on his part, providing the New Orleans houses meet their liabilities, as it is now morally certain they will do; and even should they not, why should his suspension extend farther than to liabilities contracted on their account? It is beyond our comprehension, or, we suspect, that of the public, why the notes given by his house to our merchants for southern drafts, &c. should not be paid at maturity, even though the houses in New Orleans should fail to supply him with means to meet liabilities contracted on their account, or the United States Bank should withhold the proffered and once-refused loan. The article of the Star on this subject, on Saturday evening, which artfully disguised its design by a cunningly devised assumption of "public opinion" in favour of a determined suspension by the Messrs. Josephs, appeared to us to have been concocted more with a view to prepare the 66 public opinion" for such a suspension than for any other purpose.

We heard of no additional failures yesterday; but, should our fears in relation to Josephs be confirmed, we may look for a whole harvest of them before the end of the week. Stocks yesterday held their ground better than on several preceding days, and sustained a downfall of not exceeding, on average, about two per cent. Money was as scarce as ever, and readily commanded two and three per cent. a month.

Extracts from an Oration delivered in Portsmouth, Va., July 4, 1838. By Theophilus Fisk. Speaking of the conduct of the Bankers, he asks

*

*

*

*

Have they (the people) forgotten the stupendous fraud, the unparalleled infamy, the premeditated, redemptionless scoundrelism, practised upon them by the suspension of specie payments, brought about by the lubberly Juggernaut which has rolled its car over a prostrate people, at once covering them with its slime and crushing them to the earth. Do they remember the dark doings of this chartered gaming-house-this mass of pecuniary iniquity-in buying fifty-five members of Congress in 1830 with 192,161 dollars-fifty-nine members in 1831 with 322,195 dollars-fifty-four in 1832 with 478,766 dollars-fifty-three in 1833 with 374,766 dollars— and in 1834 it purchased fifty-two members of Congress with 238,586